lee woodruff

 

And then reality intruded.  I would need to get a job.  No one was hiring novelists.  That’s how I landed in the public relations field, writing corporate materials and press kits and pitching accounts.  I wrote race car materials, brochures on bunion prevention and the benefits of cloth versus paper diapers (the environmental impact came out about equal).  I covered the gamut, and I honed my craft even more.

 

Somewhere in there I met the man who looked like he could make it for the long haul and we ended up with four kids, living in ten different cities and towns.  Twenty-four years later he is still the one I want beside me when I turn off the bedside light.

 

When I became a mother and wanted a bit more flexibility, I left the corporate world and in 1991 opened my own freelance writing and marketing business. I began to find my voice and wrote more about my own experiences and those of my family. That led to being a contributing editor for Family Fun magazine and more articles and essays that were published in magazines such as LHJ, More, Health, Redbook, Country Living and Prevention. 

 

In 2007, I joined ABC’s Good Morning America as a lifestyle and family contributor and then in 2012, I moved to CBS This Morning where I am excited to be working with Charlie Rose, Gayle King and Norah O’Donnell.  I work on a range of interesting stories and get to meet some pretty cool people in the process. 

 

My first book In an Instant was co-authored with my husband Bob, the ABC News Anchor who was critically injured in Iraq in 2006.  We were proud that the book helped put a face on the serious issue of traumatic brain injury among returning Iraq war veterans, as well as the millions of Americans who live with this often invisible, but life-changing affliction.  In the end, people tell me it is a love story; a story about a family, a marriage and a journey to heal.

 

My second book, Perfectly Imperfect: A Life in Progress, is a collection of essays about life—some serious, some lighter and humorous.  I adore essay books because you can read one complete story in the bath or before bed.  And I love making people laugh.  The highest compliment you can pay me is to laugh out loud reading my book because in my opinion, making humor work solely with words is challenging.

 

My first work of fiction, Those We Love Most, feels like another baby.  I’m so excited to share it with the world and to continue to write the many stories and ideas I have buzzing around in my head.  And I hope you enjoy it too.  It’s a book about two generations, their secrets, losses and love and ultimately their healing.  This genre of fiction is a favorite of mine because it shows us how life really is- the shared experience and the overcoming —and not how we wish it would be.

 

When I’m not writing or mothering, traveling for speaking engagements and CBS News stories and journalism or trying to being a good wife, daughter, sister and friend (who isn’t?)  I’m spending time working with our foundation Remind.org. The organization assists wounded service members and their families transition to the home front.  We are honored as a family to continue to speak out and raise awareness about the plight of our returning service members.  Please keep them in your hearts and find them in your communities.